In 1948, at age 15, France Clidat played Henri Sauguet's Concerto in A minor in Geneva under the conductor Ernest Ansermet. She studied at the Paris Conservatory with Lazare Lévy, Maurice Hewitt, Alexis Roland-Manuel, Norbert Dufourcq, and Robert Siohan and received first prize in piano in 1950, at the age of 18. She later studied with Emil Gilels and Lélia Gousseau. At the Budapest International Competition in September 1956, she won the Franz Liszt Prize, a prize that had not been awarded since 1937. She later performed in many venues around the world. After a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Bernard Gavoty, reviewer for Le Figaro, dubbed her "Madame Liszt". She was also called "the Ambassadress of the French piano" and she was named alongside Monique Haas, Cécile Ousset, Robert Casadesus and Philippe Entremont as outstanding representatives of the French piano school. It is still claimed in various places that she recorded the "complete piano works of Liszt" and "Liszt's complete pianistic output", but this can be shown not to be the case when her Liszt recordings (24 LPs, which were later transferred to 28 CDs) are compared with the 99 Liszt CDs recorded by Leslie Howard, which included over 300 premiere recordings. From 1980 she recorded for Forlane and it is these recordings which are featured on Classical.com. France Clidat recorded the complete piano works of Erik Satie, and works by Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Marcel Landowski. She taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris for a number of years, where she attracted many students from around the world. She also gave masterclasses in various countries, particularly Japan. Clidat appeared as a juror at many important piano competitions, including the International Franz Liszt Competition, the 3rd International Rhodes Competition, and the Francis Poulenc Competition. She published articles about Liszt's solo piano music, such as "The Transcendental Studies: A Lisztian Pianist's Impressions" in New Light on Liszt and His Music (Walker, Saffle, Deaville) and "Aux sources littéraires de Franz Liszt", with Jeanne Fauré-Cousin, an entire double issue of La Révue musicale. Many works were dedicated to France Clidat and Bruno Rossignol wrote an Aria et Fugato sur le Nom de France Clidat. Her playing of the Adagio from Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, was featured in the 2000 film Maelström. This recording is featured here